1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and a system for ordering, loading and using admission tickets for access to access-controlled service devices.
2. Discussion of the Background
In generally known methods and systems for ordering admission tickets, the order is carried out by means of telephone call, through a mobile or fixed-installed telephone apparatus, to a reservation center, which informs the interested customer, for example by means of spoken menu presentation, about events and/or performances, and receives reservations, or respectively orders, of admission tickets from the customer via the dialing keys of his telephone apparatus. The reservations and orders are typically stored in a database and forwarded to a respective organizer, for example, who prepares the desired admission tickets for the customer to collect, or the desired admission tickets are sent to the customer directly by mail, it being possible for the billing to take place by dispatched invoice, by cash payment upon collection, or by telephone bill. Drawbacks of such methods and systems are, for example, that considerable time passes between the ordering and the handing over of the admission tickets to the customer or that it is not always ensured that admission tickets ordered are also collected.
For automated access control of access-controlled service devices, such as, for example, means of public transportation, secured buildings, halls or exhibition grounds, systems and methods are known in which reading devices are typically used that are able to read the admission tickets and which are connected to access devices that automatically open doors or barriers on the basis of the information read in the admission tickets and dear entry to respective access-controlled devices. In particular in the case of secured buildings or places of employment where the recording of working time is linked to the access control, use of personal chipcards is known which serve the authentication of persons and the automatic access control connected therewith. In general, such personal chipcards are designed in a targeted way only for this special application and, as a rule, the data, relating to persons and application specific, is only seldom changed.
Described in the patent publication DE 43 01 039 C2 is a system for administration of jointly used motor vehicles which system combines the telephone reservation described above and the access control with a personal chipcard. In the system according to DE 43 01 039 C2, the customer clarifies the reservation by telephone with a center. A computer with a reservation program transmits customer reservation data, in accordance with the reservation made, by means of a modem via the telephone network and from a fixed station with a wireless telephone to a vehicle, where they are able to be stored. The customer is equipped with a chipcard on which his customer number and an encrypted code is stored. The chipcard is inserted into a portable infrared hand apparatus that is able to communicate with a board computer. The access authorization is established through the exchange and the encryption of random numbers and, if applicable, the vehicle door opened. Inside the vehicle, the chipcard is inserted into a card reader and the authorization to drive is checked on the basis of the stored reservation data. The chipcard used as admission ticket in the system according to DE 43 01 039 C2 is designed in such a way, however, that it can only be used as an admission ticket in a targeted way for this application.
Described in the patent application EP 713 198 A2 is an electronic ticket sale system in which electronic tickets can be loaded on a chipcard by the customer at a sales terminal which has data input and data display means in exchange for electronic payment from the chipcard. According to EP 713 198 A2, the data exchange between the sales terminal and the chipcard can take place through a contactless interface or an interface having contacts. In the ticket sale system according to EP 713 198 A2, a plurality of sales terminals can be connected through communications links, in particular the telephone network, to one or more ticket sale centers, which ticket sale centers transmit the requested tickets to the sales terminal from which the tickets have been requested.
Described in the patent application WO 98/58510 is a mobile radio telephone with a removable SIM card (Subscriber Identification Module), that has at least one wireless interface, for example an inductive interface or an infrared interface, via which the SIM card is able to exchange data with an external device without using a mobile telephone network. According to WO 98/58510, the external device can be an access-control device which releases the access to a protected zone in exchange for receipt of an electronic key stored on the SIM card.
Described in the patent application WO 99/09502 is an electronic commerce system in which it is possible to order electronic tickets from a service providing system by means of a mobile radio telephone over a mobile radio network. According to WO 99/09502, the user identification of the ordering user is transmitted in the ticket order by the mobile radio telephone to the service providing system. According to WO 99/09502, the ticket order is passed on by the service providing system to a ticket issuing system, the user identification in the service providing system being replaced by a customer number of the respective user. According to WO 99/09502, the ordered ticket is subsequently transmitted by the ticket issuing system via the service providing system to the mobile radio telephone, from which the ticket order was placed, and is stored there, for example on a chipcard. According to WO 99/09502, the stored tickets can be used as admission tickets for admission to access-controlled service devices, for example in a cinema, the tickets being transmitted to the service device, for example via a contactless interface.